Futaba Marui
"It's done! My life size F cup!" Futaba Marui in Episode 4 Futaba Marui (丸井 ふたば Marui Futaba) is the second of the Marui triplets. She attends Kamohashi Elementary as part of class 6-3. She is energetic and air-headed, but also tends to speak and act lecherously. She is described as a "kind of lewd muscle girl." Attributes Appearance She has reddish-brown hair tied in a small ponytail at the top of her head. Some people call it her "antennae" or "top-knot," which is a recurring joke in the show/manga. She also ties her hair in two ponytails. Before she cut it up into pencil boxes, she wore a white dōgi, which emphasizes her strength. After she cut it up, she only ever wears the clothes that she wore under it, which are a blue tank top and dark-blue spats. Only on rare occasions does she wear different clothes. Futaba goes around barefoot most of the time; in fact, she has a hard time walking in shoes and prefers not to wear them. Of her sisters, she is the tallest, though Mitsuba is only a little bit shorter than her. She also has the most grown up body; her bust size is greater than her sisters' and most of the girls in her class. She is very muscular, as well. Futaba's eyes also tend to turn into all-black oval shapes, a look known as "panda eyes"; many other characters are shown with this look throughout the manga and anime, but it is the most frequent with Futaba. Personality and Interests Futaba is a cheerful, respectful and happy prepubescent tomboy. Of her sisters, she is by far the nicest, but also the dimmest. Like a warrior, she is humble and always reflects on bad actions, and she consistently refers to herself with the humble pronoun shousei (小生). Futaba tends to think of others before herself, but she has odd ideas about what common sense is and frequently misunderstands situations. One way she tries to be helpful is by "becoming" things for her sisters; for instance, she tried to act as a replacement for Hitoha's thumb when it was injured, and she even gets jealous of Mitsuba's vibrating ab belt because Mitsuba thinks that it's better at vibrating than her. While Futaba is goofy, she can be quite dedicated to topics that interest her. A particular passion of hers is breasts, with which she has an odd obsession. Her fascination with breasts is probably due to the lack of mother figure in her childhood; she uses a breast-shaped pillow to sleep and views it as an object of comfort. This sort of behavior is misunderstood by others - especially Chiba - who view it as perverted behavior. In reality, her obsession does not seem to be sexual in nature, though it sometimes comes off that way, especially to people who don't know her. It is partly as a result of this obsession that she is a very good artist. In particular, she is good at drawing, but she is skilled with other media as well. Most often she likes to draw breasts, although she can draw other things very well, too, and Mitsuba frequently recruits her to draw things for her. She always finds a way to include boobs into drawings, though, even when she's not supposed to. One of Futaba's most noticeable traits is her great strength. In fact, it appears to be almost superhuman at times, Futaba being able to lift things a twelve-year-old girl can't. Not only is she strong, but she is a very fast runner (her time for the 50m sprint is 6.2 seconds), has lightning-fast reflexes, has amazing hand-eye coordination, and has a very high tolerance for pain. In general, she is good at anything physical. She is viewed by her classmates as a sort of trump card in sports games; whatever team she is on will end up being the one that wins. She even likes to play against other teams all by herself and in goal keepers who have to defend goals from her in soccer fear for their lives. Her main weakness is that she's not very good at controlling her strength, so she often ends up breaking things or hurting people accidentally. She is also not good at anything that requires that she wears shoes (such as ice skating), as she is not used to it and can't move around properly while wearing them. Futaba is a poor student and has some of the worst grades in her class. In addition to not being as smart as most of her other classmates, she is also easily distracted when doing schoolwork or taking tests and she very often sleeps during class. Also, despite being good at drawing, her handwriting is fairly poor. Hitoha manages to help her learn math by coming up with word problems involving breasts, but for the most part she doesn't seem to care at all about her grades. She has a verbal tic, often ending her sentences in "ssu," which is short for "desu." Relationships Mitsuba and Hitoha Marui Futaba has a close relationship with her sisters, although she often ends up embarrassing them due to her goofy attitude and frequent misunderstandings. She calls Mitsuba "Micchan" and often calls Hitoha "Hito". She sometimes looks up to Mitsuba as her big sister and is grateful to her for helping her with things or teaching her things. This is usually a mistake, however, as Mitsuba takes advantage of Futaba being simple and tells her lies. Even in these cases, however, Futaba usually ends up misunderstanding something and causes trouble for Mitsuba anyway. Futaba likes to spend time with Hitoha, although her favorite thing to do with her is squeeze her cheeks, which are soft and apparently feel like boobs. Futaba even once said that Hitoha's cheeks are her only attractive feature. She is also sympathetic to Hitoha's fear of swimming and tries to help her learn how to swim, though she normally just makes trouble for her. Soujirou Marui "I love you, Papa!" Futaba in Episode 5 Futaba is very close to her father, and loves him dearly. For her, he is the person she cares about the most. She even carries a picture of him when he was younger (who bears a resemblance to Satou). However, she seems to be completely clueless every time he gets arrested. Futaba often takes baths with him and sometimes she even sleeps with him, facts which she points out to others on multiple occasions. The affection is mutual as well, for as much as Futaba can't bear to be without her father, her father can't bear to be without her. She loves him more (or at least more openly) than her sisters do, and she's willing to fight them should she think they might love him more. Not only that, but she seems to love him more than she does her sisters. In Chapter 37, Mitsuba gives Futaba her sneakers, and although she is unable to get used to them - causing Satou and Chiba to lose the soccer match because Futaba couldn't play well - she refuses to take them off because she treasures the gift from her sister. She immediately takes them off in order to run to her father and hug him, however, showing that when it comes to her father she has no time for Mitsuba's hindering shoes. Shinya Satou "I love Shin-chan just like I love you, Papa! He gets embarrassed, but he is sweet and kind in the same way you are!" Futaba in Episode 6 of the second season Satou is Futaba's childhood friend. Of the boys in class 6-3, she is closest to Satou, whom she affectionately calls "Shin-chan". Due to their close friendship, some girls - especially the Hopeless Squad - glare daggers at her; although she is oblivious to this. She enjoys playing with him, especially soccer. She even leaves notes in his locker asking to play with him after school, and apparently she doesn't even need to sign them because he can recognize her handwriting. Futaba often embarrasses him, though this is usually unintentional and based in some misunderstanding (i.e. Futaba telling everyone he likes panties on numerous occasions). In the Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu ending, Satou appears on the things that are most important to Futaba (along with her father and big breasts). Yuudai Chiba Futaba is friends with Chiba and she often hangs out with him together with Satou. She looks up to Chiba and considers him to be very knowledgeable about breasts and panties. They share an interest in boobs, although for different reasons. Chiba actually doesn't really think of her as a girl, at least not in the same way as the other girls in their class. Futaba respectfully refers to Chiba as ''Chiba-shi ''(Mr. Chiba). Appearances Manga Futaba debuted in Chapter 1 of the published manga. Yabe decides to play the game of musical chairs, but Futaba misunderstands it and ends up attacking her classmates until Yabe finally stops her and tells her that it isn't a war. When Yabe has the Marui triplets stand up to change places, Futaba and Mitsuba get all fired up, like they are about to fight. Futaba accidentally hurts Mitsuba after trying to stop her going for a chair. In the manga she is more affectionate towards Satou, and she even participates with the schemes of the Hopeless Squad. She still loves her father the most, though. Anime Futaba appears in Episode 1. Much like in the manga, she mistakes a musical chairs game for a fight and ends up attacking all the boys, until Yabe explains the situation. Later she ends up hurting Mitsuba by accident. After the triplets noticed that Yabe has a crush on Kuriyama, Futaba wanted to come up with an idea to help him, but failed, so Hitoha got an idea instead. The triplets decided to bust him and have Kuriyama treat him. Futaba tried to kick Yabe, but missed and destroyed a podium, causing him to run off. Mitsuba then warned her not to hurt him because with her strength. Things finally end with Yabe sacking himself on Kuriyama’s head. However, Kuriyama didn’t have her glasses and believed that Yabe’s a fourth grader, much to everyone’s dismay. The triplets apologized in the end, with Futaba kowtowing on a desk in front of Yabe. Songs *ABC yori DEF ssu!! *Otona ni Nattara... *Tsuyoi Surudoi Shougakusei (with Mitsuba and Hitoha) *Mittsu Kazoete Daishuugou! (with Mitsuba and Hitoha) *Waga Na wa Shougakusei (with Mitsuba and Hitoha) *Sensei wa Kodomo, Kodomo wa Sensei (with Yabecchi) *Masaka Sanransei!? (with Mitsuba and Hitoha) *Mousugu Chuugakusei (with Mitsuba and Hitoha) Trivia *Her name means "two leaf". *She is the only character whose outfit does not change daily. *In her character song Otona ni Nattara... it is revealed that her biggest fear is growing up. *Due to her strength she tends to make food that comes out looking like it was crushed thoroughly (or in the case of the Valentine's chocolate she made for Satou, looked misleadingly like mud). However, it actually tastes delicious. *Though she is later shown to love her father greatly, early in the manga (in Chapter 11) she seems to be as embarrassed as her sisters during the pool incident when he shows up with their panties. In the anime characterization (Episode 3) she doesn't show this, making her the only one not to be punished. This is likely because that part of her character had not yet been developed in the manga. *In the manga and anime, the sound effect ''tate-chite tate-chite ''is associated with Futaba walking briskly. *In the "Yabecchi's Room" segment of Episode 12, when Yabe asks about where she gets her strength and if it has anything to do with the dōgi she used to wear, Futaba's responses are "I don't know" and "Ask the author". *The writing on her dōgi reads ''kotorida ''(小鳥田) and is likely meant to represent association with a certain dojo. *In a readers poll celebrating 300 issues of Mitsudomoe, she came in 4th place. (Knocked out of the top 3 by Miyashita.) Category:Characters